Sandy petersens cthulhu mythos 328

IX Mythos Bestiary
dhole: this generally requires a successful DC 30 Climb
check, and unlike the normal rules above about dholes
and attacks of opportunity, a Small or larger creature
that climbs on a dhole’s body provokes an attack of
opportunity from the monster (typically a slam attack).
Overwhelming Strength (Ex) A dhole always applies
1-1/2 times its Strength modifier on all natural weapon
attacks.
Tremor (Ex) Each round in which a dhole uses its
burrow speed to travel at least 50 feet, it affects the
area through which it burrows as if by an earthquake
spell (a dhole that moves slower than this still causes
the ground to rumble, but not significantly enough to
emulate an earthquake). This earthquake affects an area
equal to the space the dhole moved through and to a
60 foot-radius around that area.

“Below him the ground was
festering with gigantic dholes;
and even as he looked, one reared
up several hundred feet…”
—Through the Gates of the
Silver Key; H. P. Lovecraft

Dholes are enormous maggot-like beings which literally

Dholes can survive in the magma deep under the

hollow out entire worlds, ultimately destroying them.

world and in the iron core of planets. They cool off

The inhabitants of worlds infested by dholes typically

this core as they burrow, weakening the planet and

focus largely on spells and anti-dhole tactics in an

eventually causing the core to solidify. The dholes

effort to slow their worlds’ destruction. Almost always,

generate huge tunnels and earthquakes as they burrow,

this effort ultimately fails, though dogged defense

causing amazing destruction that should terrify any

can often hold off a world’s fate for centuries or even

mortal.

millennia. Truly gigantic, dholes can grow up to miles
in length and weigh hundreds of thousands or millions
of tons. Even the Great Old Ones think twice before
meddling with these supreme worms.
Dhole reproduction follows a bizarre generationalternation method, which is how they travel from
planet to planet. When a dhole gives birth, its new
larva does not appear in the material plane; instead, it
emerges in the Dreamlands as a bhole hatchling. This

creature lives and grows in the Dreamlands until it

Dholes in Combat
Dholes are unfazed by extreme temperatures and are
not harmed by the strongest poisons or acid. They
can burrow through the earth at an incredible speed,
creating an environmental hazard as much as presenting
a combat challenge. They prefer to spit on smaller foes
from miles away or simply roll over them, reserving
bites and grappling for enemies of comparable size to
themselves.

becomes an adult bhole. At that point, it gives birth
to a cluster of larvae in the material universe, typically
at the heart of a planet or in an area already infested
by dholes, to assist in finishing off a world they have
invaded. These offspring are dhole hatchlings.
The terrifying reality of this method of reproduction
is that there is no way to prevent dholes from attacking
a given world. They don’t travel to it from space: they
simply appear within it, at the whim of a monstrous
Dreamlands creature.

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